A Jesuit History of Jansenism

Author(s): E. T. Dubois
Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Oct., 1969), pp. 764-773
Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association
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 A JESUIT HISTORY OF JANSENISM
More than three hundred years have passed since the beginning of the long drawn
out controversy over the movement known as Jansenism; although apparently
remote from our twentieth-century preoccupations, historians, theologians, and
sociologists have, in the last quarter of a century, turned to it with renewed interest
and attempted something of a rehabilitation. This is in the first place due to the
admirable scholarship of J. Orcibal who began, in I947, by editing Jansen's
correspondence with Duvergier de Hauranne from the original manuscript; this
was followed by a study of Saint-Cyranet son tempsand La Spiritualitede Saint-Cyran.
To this must be added the publication in 1962 of further manuscript letters of
Saint-Cyran by A. Barnes as well as that of the correspondence of Martin de
Barcos by L. Goldmann. Modern editions of the Relationecritesur Port-Royaland
the Relationde captivitewere made available by L. Cognet who added studies of
Claude Lancelot and of the history of seventeenth-century spirituality. So far for
Jansenism in France; but the movement began in Louvain. Two Belgian scholars
have concerned themselves with the early period: L. Willaert in Les originesdu
jansenismedansles Pays-Bascatholiquesand L. Ceyssens in Sourcesrelativesaux debuts
du Jansenismeet de l'Anti-Jansenisme, and with A. Legrand in La Fin de la premiere
periodedu jansenisme.Sourcesdes anneesi654-i66o. Ceyssens bases himself mainly
on two seventeenth-century historians of Jansenism, Gabriel Gerberon and Rene
Rapin who wrote their accounts from two opposite points of view. History was in
the seventeenth century still largely considered as a literary genre, particularly
by the Jesuits as teachers of rhetoric; if one adds to these rhetorical embellishments
the misesaupoint,dictated by personal prejudices, the discovery of the truth becomes
an extremely difficult, if not insurmountable task. However, Rapin furnishes some
invaluable documents, including the notes taken in the Archives of the Holy Office
in Rome, covering the critical years I642-3, which stand up to the scrutiny of
modern scholarship.
A generation earlier, A. Gazier's Histoire gene'raledu mouvement janseniste and
Bremond's L'Ecolefranfaise et Port-Royalrenewed the old controversy in modern
terms. The fairest account remains no doubt N. Abercrombie's The Originsof
Jansenism.Bremond, not unsympathetic to the Society he had left, was however
impartial enough to use Jesuit sources, and Rapin in particular, discerningly.
He saw him as an 'humaniste incomparable', but also, less flatteringly for his
scholarship, as a 'charmant causeur' and a 'gentleman accompli'. Bremond
probably hit the nail on the head when he pointed to the reasons for Sainte-Beuve's
hostility towards Rapin's Memoires,published shortly after his own Port-Royal:
Quoiqu'ilen soitla rupturedefinitiveentreSainte-Beuveet lesjesuitesfut amende,je crois,
par la publicationdes Memoires du P. Rapin en I865. Cettepublicationl'exaspera.C'etait
avec la siennepropre,et l'Abrege de Racine,la seulehistoiredu jansenismequ'unhonn6te
hommeput lire. Ellejetait un jour nouveausurplusd'un probleme,elle contenaitquantite
d'anecdotesint6ressantes. A l'extremerigueur,un espritpr6venupouvaitcraindrequ'elle
ne fit oublierle Port-Royal.
Sainte-Beuveeut peut-etrecette craintepuerileque l'dvenement
devait si peu justifier . . . (L'Ecolefranfaiseet Port-Royal,p. 23)
Indeed Sainte-Beuve addressed to Rapin what Bremond called a posthumous
petiteprovinciale,upbraiding him for his worldliness. The unreserved admiration for
 E. T. DUBOIS 765
Port-Royal and its friends in the world and the concomitant denigration of the
Jesuits was of course largely Sainte-Beuve's doing. His arguments and attitude have
continued to influence modern historians. J. Orcibal reiterates Sainte-Beuve's
accusations, adding that Rapin has been 'demesurement exalte', even though he
has to concede 'qu'il possedait sur une epoque tardive des informations directes'.
The HistoireduJansenismeand the Memoiressur l'Eglise et la Societela Courla Ville
et le Jansenismecover the period that begins with the early career of Jansen, his
friendship with Duvergier de Hauranne, and ends with the peace of Clement IX
in I668-9. This, his life's work, was not to be published until the later nineteenth
century, the Histoire (very badly) in i86I by abbe Domenech and the Memoires,
mostly accurately annotated, between i860-5 by L. Aubineau. Rapin knew he
was writing for posterity only, as Bouhours indicates in his biographical note:
Son zele pour les interets de la religion et pour l'honneur de sa Compagnie lui fit entre-
prendre, il y a plus de vingt ans, un ouvrage ou il a travaille constamment sans nulle esperance
de le voir paraitre et que Dieu lui a fait la grace d'achever avant de mourir. (Vie du P.
Rapin in Hortorum libri IV (Paris, 1723))

Father Oliva, the then General of the Society, had formally banned any con-
troversial writings on Jansenism in a letter of January 1669:
LesJansenistes, qui dans le passe ne se sont pas conformes aux bulles des papes, ont toujours
montre - et montrent plus que jamais - que leur repugnance a se reconcilier provient
surtout des insultes qu'ils craignent de nos langues et du triomphe qu'ils prevoient dans nos
maisons. C'est pourquoi je juge bon d'ordonner a tous nos Peres et Freres- et je l'ordonne
avec instance - que, sans permission de Sa Saintete, ils n'ecrivent ni ne parlent, en aucune
maniere; le silence sur un tel sujet devra etre inviolable, afin d'enlever tout pretexte i
ceux qui different leur conversion...

In spite of Rapin's systematical and zealous search for first-hand information the
fact that he was composing a history of Jansenism was no more than a rumour
in his time. Gerberon notes in the 'Avertissement' to the Histoire du Jansenisme
(Amsterdam, 1700):
. . On avoit esp6re que Messieurs de Port-Royal en [une Histoire du jansenisme] don-
neroient une; mais etant tous morts, on avoit perdu l'esperance de voir sur ce sujet quelque
chose d'acheve. Il s'etoit r6pandu un bruit que les Peres Jesuites avoient mis sous presse
l'Histoire qu'on disoit que le Pere Rapin devoit ecrire en Latin; mais soit que l'ouvrage
n'ait rien de reel, ou que ces Peres ayent des raisons, pour ne le faire paroitre si-t6t, l'on n'en
a rien vu ...

Before writing his history of Jansenism, Rapin had established a reputation as an

honnetehomme,as a Latin poet, author of eclogues and a long poem on gardens after
the manner of Virgil's Georgics;he was one of the outstanding teachers at the college
de Clermont as a Latinist, but he also had no mean knowledge of Greek. He began
to have excellent social connexions, in the first place no doubt through the pupils'
parents. He taught both sons of the Premier President de Lamoignon and became
his lifelong friend. In the academiewhich Lamoignon gathered at his town house
as well as at Baville from I667 onwards Rapin developed his talents as a critic.
In i666 Rapin was made scriptorof the college de Clermont (his task lay hence-
forward in research) and entrusted with the official task of writing the history of
Jansenism. He began to assemble his material systematically. He had in the college
library the manuscript correspondence of Jansen and Duvergier de Hauranne.
766 A Jesuit Historyof Jansenism

This had already been deciphered by Pinthereau and Rapin used the edited
version for reasons he states in the Histoiredujansenisme(p. 59):
... je declare que je ne me servirai que de la copie de ces lettres, qui sont en original au
college de Clermont, comme elle a ete imprimee par le P. Francois Pinthereau ... parce
que chaque lettre y etant fidelement dechiffree et ne l'etant pas dans l'original, l'usage que
j'en ferai sera plus net, moins embarrass6et d'une fidelit6 aussi exacte ...
The modern scholar would no doubt act differently, but Rapin's aim was to write
a readable account of the jansenist movement where letters written in a cipher
would have been irritating to the reader.
For his research Rapin undertook two journeys, the first to Flanders, in the
spring of 1667, just before the beginning of the War of Devolution, to consult
material available in Arras, Douai, and Bruxelles. From Arras he wrote to
Mademoiselle de Scudery:
On m'a fait tant d'honneur ici en votre consideration que je ne puis en partir sans vous en
faire mes remerciments . . Ayez la bonte de me faire savoir de vos nouvelles .. .j'en
pourrais recevoir a Bruxelles, si vous preniez la peine d'adresservos lettres a M. de Gourville
dans dix ou douze jours ... N'allez pas vous aviser ... de nous faire la guerre pendant que
je vas 6tre Flamand. Je ne vous demande que deux mois de temps. .1
The second journey took him to Rome where he stayed from the late summer or
early autumn of 1667 for just less than a year. In Rome he had access perhaps to
the most valuable documents of all, the Archives of the Congregation of the Holy
Office:
. . Les M6moires qu'on en garde [of the negotiations between France and the Holy See
concerning the Five Propositions] au Saint-Office a Rome, que le pape Clement IX ordonna
au cardinal Albizzy de me communiquer dans un voyage que je fis expres en Italie pour
cela, et selon les instructions qu'on m'a fournies sur ce qui s'est passe en France de plus
secret en cette affaire, dont j'ay appris bien des particularit6spar des gens de l'un et l'autre
party, qui en avoient le plus de connaissance. (Mimoires,I, 2)
A very large part of the work and not the least valuable is made up of personal
stories, anecdotes, witness accounts, all the 'potin' Rapin could collect. He was
perfectly right when he wrote to Bussy-Rabutin in 1672: 'Je connais tout ce qu'il
y a de merite dans le royaume.' This 'commerce avec le monde', even the 'beau
monde' was for the purpose of gathering information from those who had or have
had connections with 'le parti'. This was not without dangers and temptations and
the General of the Society wrote to the Rector of the collkge de Clermont (P. des
Champs) in 1677:
... un aimable train de promenades, de voyages, de sejourschampktresqui les [Bouhours et
Rapin] d6shabituaient agrdablement des 6troites chambres nues et des grands murs maus-
sades de leur College de Clermont. ..
Rapin frequented Mme de Sable's salon, after his return from Rome, when, accord-
ing to Sainte-Beuve, the marquise entertained neighbourly relations with the
'Port-Royal mal pensant', the Parisian convent that had signed the formulaire.
He was also kept informed of the movements of the H6tel de Guemene and of
that stronghold of Jansenism, the Hotel de Nevers:
C'etoit la qu'on d6bitoit, avec toute la politesse dont cet hotel dtoit plein, toutes les bonnes
fortunes du party et tout ce qu'il y avait d'agr6able dans la nouvelle morale: et autant que la

1 De P. Rapin a Mile de Scudery, io mai 1667; printed in lEtudesreligieuses,4e serie, tome v (1870),
p. 609.
 E. T. DUBOIS 767
doctrine prdtendue de saint Augustin s'avancoit par le Port-Royal parmy les devots, autant
faisoit-elle de progres par l'h6tel de Nevers dans le beau monde. (Miemoires,I, 218)
In Mme de Sable's drawing-room he met the most obstinately devoted friends of
Port-Royal, Mme de Bregy (mother of Soeur Anne-Marie de Ste Eustoquie),
as well as La Rochefoucauld and Nicole, Mme d'Uxelles, and of course Mme de
Longueville.
In the Premier President's lifetime Baville and the H6tel de Lamoignon in the
Marais had been by and large sympathetic to the orthodox cause, as this passage
from Lamoignon's personal papers shows:
I1 est juste dans cette rencontre de ne se point relacher de la severite dont on a use jusqu'a
cette heure contre ceux qu'on appelle dans le monde Jansdnistes de profession, parce qu'ils
font gloire de leur opiniatrete, et qu'ils ne persistent dans leur doctrine que pour avoir
matiere a disputer, et de montrer leur scavoir. Mais surtout on ne peut pas apporter trop
de rigueur pour supprimer leurs dcrits, en chatier les auteurs et punir tous ceux qui con-
tribuent a les publier...1
This was written in I669. His son, Chretien-Fran9ois, turned his loyalties to the
other side, entrusted the education of his children to thejans'nisant Baillet, received
Canon Hermant regularly, so much so that Bourdaloue only came to Baville
reluctantly, though much to Mme de Sevigne's delight:
. .. j'arrivai droit a Baville ofuM. de Lamoignon me fit trouver ma fille et tous les Grignans
.. .Je fus donc fort contente ... de la compagnie. Le P. Rapin et le P. Bourdaloue y
etaient. Je fus fort aise de les voir dans la libert6 de la campagne, oii l'un et l'autre gagnent
beaucoup a se faire connoltre, chacun dans son caractere ... (Letter of 5 October 1685)
For the early period of his history ofJansenism Rapin made use of three personal
witnesses: Dom Jouauld, abbe de Prieres, at one time assistant to the General
of the Cistercian order who had had direct dealings with Saint-Cyran at Mau-
buisson and with Port-Royal. This at the time when Mere Angelique withdrew
Port-Royal from the jurisdiction of Citeaux and put the community under that of
the Ordinary. Dom Jouauld had also acted as Richelieu's secretary. Another
witness Rapin consulted was the lawyer Le Tardif, brother of Mere Genevieve Le
Tardif, once a close friend of Saint-Cyran who had eventually turned away from
him. The third personal witness, probably the least reliable but nonetheless useful
for certain kinds of information, was Mathieu de Mourgues, a former protege of
Richelieu, who had gone into exile with the Queen Mother and eventually returned
in her and Mazarin's service. When Rapin saw him somewhere between 1665-70
he lived at the Incurables where, as Bouhours tells us 'il allait confesser les malades
de 1'Hotel-Dieu regulierement toutes les semaines. . . '. Mourgues was opposed
to the Jansenists but well informed, as Patin indicates in a letter of 15 December
1670:
Le bonhomme Mathieu de Mourgues, abbe de Saint-Germain: jadis Aumonier de la Reine-
Mere Marie de Medicis... est si vieux, qu'il n'en peut plus, on dit qu'il passe 87 ans, cet
homme s?ait une infinite de particularitez de la Cour depuis 60 ans, et en a vu une partie ...
Among clerics Rapin consulted Tronson of Saint-Sulpice to obtain details of the
celebrated quarrel the Liancourts had with the then parish priest, P. Picote. Among
the Oratorians Rapin contacted P. Amelote, one of the few who had resisted
Jansenist influence; he communicated to Rapin Gibieuf's meomoire,containing

1 Bibliotheque Nationale, MSS, FF 23985.

 768 A Jesuit Historyof Jansenism
Condren's assessment of Saint-Cyran when he had become suspicious of his
spirituality and warned his confreres against the dangers of the 'nouvelles doctrines
qu'on repandait dans le monde'. The rivalry between the Oratory and the Society
of Jesus, apart from the different flavour of their spirituality, had its origin in the
field of education which the former tried to enter when the latter already had a
strong foothold.'
From his own Society Rapin must have had direct information through P. Petau
who had been at University with Duvergier de Hauranne for two years, 1598-I 600;
he was one of the most distinguished theologians of the Society and as well read in
the early Fathers as his former fellow student.
In addition to a large number of informantsdrawn from the society he frequented,
Rapin occasionally had recourse to other sources of information, such as the printer
Antoine Vitre who worked for the house of Mabre-Cramoisy who published most
of Rapin's works.2
In the detailed account of the Jansenist movement certain central figures stand
out, among them Duvergier de Hauranne and his friend Jansen. They had met in
1609 when Duvergier was still at the Jesuit college in Louvain. One of the problems
most widely discussed in the university was that of grace and free will, initiated
by Baius. His teaching on the subject had been condemned by Rome as heretical.
This Jansen was to take up and make his life's work; and he enlisted Duvergier's
aid. Thus Jansen wrote in 1621 about the progress of his work:
Les affairesde Sulpice [i.e. Jansen] s'avancentpeu a peu; il croit qu'il a trouvecertaines
racinesd'ou sortirontdes arbrespour en bastir une maison,sur une matierede Pilmot
[= grace efficace] ... Toutefois il doute de force choses, . .. parce que c'est son jugement
seul qui le juge ainsi.Cars'il fait voir ces chosesa Chimer[= les molinistes]il seradescri6
pourle plus extravagantResveurqu'ona veu de son temps. . .3
On another occasion Jansen indicated that the general ignorance on the topic
might be profitable to him 'Vrayment l'ignorance . .. de plusieurs semble pouvoir
servir a faire des bons coups... .'. Jansen's desire to win over Berulle becomes
obvious from the letters of 3 June and I July I622. He gave a ready approbation
to Les Grandeurs deJe'sussince the subject 'y est fort proche et la [Pilmot] touche en
force endroits', although he was not entirely satisfied since it was 'en quelques pars
assez brouillee et gastee par Chimer [i.e. Molinistes]'. He declared however
'Je ferai toute assistance a avancer les affaires de Blemar (i.e. Berulle] en ces
quartiers', that is the establishment of the Oratory in Flanders. At this point Rapin
misses a revealing remark 'Sulpice [i.e. Jansen] vous prie aussi d'avoir l'affaire a
coeur car il est passionne contre Gorphoroste [Les Jesuites]'. In the meantime
Saint-Cyran had ingratiated himself at Port-Royal through his personal acquain-
tance with the Arnaulds. But he had also begun 'a s'insinuer par sa capacit6 dans
les bonnes graces de ce prelat [Richelieu avant son elevation]', and reported 'de
la promotion instante de M. de Lu9on je suis fort aise croyant qu'il ne nuira point
a notre affaire ... '. However events were to prove Saint-Cyran wrong. Richelieu

1 See P. Gioan, Louis-Le-Grand,I563-I963, Studes SouvenirsDocuments(1963), Chapter In; the

Oratorians founded 26 collegesbetween I616 and I655.
2 Memoires,
I, 33; see also H.-J. Martin, 'Un grand editeur parisien au XVIIe siecle', Gutenberg
Jahrbuch(i957), I79-88.
3 Rapin quotes the letters in the transcribed form for sylistic reasons; the original cipher reveals
something of the cabalistic nature of the correspondence.
 E. T. DUBOIS 769
had esteemed him for his austere spirituality and when he had him arrested in
1638 said 'J'ai fait aujourd'hui une chose qui fera crier contre moi ... Je prevois
que tout ce qu'il y a de savants et de gens de bien s'eleveront contre moi...'
but he had 'la conscience assuree d'avoir rendu service a l'Eglise eta l'Etat.. '.
Whilst Jansen was travelling in Spain on a secret diplomatic mission, to rouse
opinion against the King's permission given to the Jesuits to teach in the university
of Louvain, Saint-Cyran was busy preparing the first of a number of writings
directed against the so-called laxist morality taught by the Jesuits: Sommedes
fautes et faussetesprincipalescontenuesen la Sommetheologiquedu P. Garasse(1626).
This was to be followed by Arnauld's Theologiemoraledes Jesuites (I643) and
eventually by the Lettresprovinciales(I656). Rapin shrewdly assessed Garasse:
' . . . il savait bien les choses, mais ce n'etait pas en homme sur qu'il les savait; il
se meprenait meme quelquefois dans les citations . . . '.He was, however, happier
about the relative literary merit of his work: ' . . . il ecrivait aussi poliment que le
portait le genie du siecle, qui etait encore grossier . .. ', and he had moreover the
literary approbation of Balzac, Malherbe, and Racan, 'les plus celebres ecrivains
du royaume'. This literary aspect of Jesuit replies became increasingly important
in Rapin's eyes.
On another aspect of the history of seventeenth-century spirituality, not
unconnected with Jansenism, Rapin has some interesting material, namely the
Compagnie duSaint-Sacrement. Orcibal pointed to a 'violente diatribe passeejusqu'ici
inapercue - contre la Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement dont le jesuite attribue la
premiere idee a Berulle'. This was in I623; the Compagnie had not been formed at
that date although a number of sodalities existed who may have provided members
for it later. Few complete accounts of the history of the Compagnie duSaint-Sacrement
have been written since the publication of d'Argenson's Annales.The most recent,
an American thesis, unfortunately has a political and sociological axe to grind.
However the spiritual antecedents of the Compagnie have been brought to light and
identified with the Compagnies de Penitents,founded at the time of the Albigensian
war. They combined the defence of orthodoxy and spiritual exercises with
charitable works. Members met openly, the element of secrecy in the Compagnie
had a different origin.1
Rapin's account of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement is integrated into the history
of seventeenth-century spirituality: its inception marked the active working out
of the Counter-Reformation in France, its dissolution in the mid-sixteen-sixties
was connected with the conflict between Jansenism and orthodoxy, then at its
height. In the late twenties, probably under the impact of the DiscoursdesGrandeurs
deJesus (and this is the link with Berulle), emphasis began to be laid, in spiritual
thought and practice, on the Incarnation, on Christ the Man; this was not
altogether out of keeping with the humanist tradition. The first move came from
the Cistercian monastery of Port-Royal, in I627, where, under the influence of the
Bishop of Langres, Zamet, the Institute of the Most Holy Sacrement was formed
and, as Rapin records, the nuns were henceforward called 'les filles du Saint-
Sacrement'. It is true that Rapin imputes the ChapeletSecretto Saint-Cyran and not
to its real author, Mere Angelique (a widely held opinion at the time), but it was

1 R. Derche, 'Encore un modele possible de Tartuffe', Revued'Histoire litterairede la France, 51

(I95I), 129-53.
49
770 A JesuitHistoryofJansenism

approved and no doubt inspired by the spiritual director of Port-Royal and was
an expression of the new spiritual orientation. This devotion to the Eucharist was
also at the basis of the Compagniedu Saint-Sacrement, founded in the same year.
Rapin points to this rapprochement which is confirmed by the Memoiresd'Utrecht.
Zamet's brother, the Duc de Ventadour, a Penitent,and Condren were among the
founder members; the Franciscan connexion, as with earlier Penitents,was also
evident with Philippe d'Angoumois, a Friar, and the Joyeuse family, especially
Henri, the famous Pere Ange de Joyeuse. The members of the new Compagnie were
encouraged to take Communion at the newly established Institute 'pour entrer en
participation de toute la gloire que cette nouvelle maison rendait a Notre Seigneur'.
Rapin also points to a similar movement in his own Society; the Confreries which
had been in existence in their schools for some time were directed, under the
influence of P. Bagot who taught at La Fl&cheand in Paris, towards a specific
devotion to the Eucharist. Many of the future members of the Compagniewere
recruited from their ranks, Schomberg and Lamoignon among them.
There are two accounts of the Compagnie in the Memoires,the first, centred on
Renty, ambiguously refers to the 'secte de devots', exactly as Moliere has portrayed
them in Tartuffe:
Maiscommeles copiesddgdnerent toujoursde leuroriginal,ils eurentaussydesimitateursou
des colleguesde leur vertu qui, . . . voulurentmal a proposfaire les mddiateursentre la
bonneet la mauvaisedoctrine...
The reference here is very probably political, since these 'faux devots' 'devinrent
odieux a la cour par l'affectation qu'il eurent de donner ou de faire donner des
avis au ministre sur sa conduite . .. '.1 The second, obviously well-informed, account
concentrates on the charitable activities in which members of the Lamoignon family
had a large share. Vincent de Paul relied on the Compagniein establishing the
Hopital General de Paris and the Seminaire des Missions Etrarigeres.
Later the Compagnieentered into the troubled years of the Jansenist conflict;
when the controversy over the Five Propositions was at its height, 'les plus zeles
de la compagnie' decided 'de faire une contribution secrete, et meme assez consider-
able, qu'ils donnerent au docteur Hallier et a ses collegues pour les disposer a
partir . . . ' so as to defend the cause of orthodoxy in Rome. This is confirmed by
the Annales:
... la compagnierdsolut... a s'opposerfortementau progresde cette doctrinecondamn,e,
comme a une heresiedeclaree... il s'elevoita la tete de chaquerang des gens zdlesqui
crioient ...: Point de jansenistes! (Memoires,II, 331)
It is well known that Port-Royal and its partisans had connexions with the
leading figures of the Fronde; Rapin points particularly to the role of Retz, 'fron-
deur et janseniste pour etre de tous les partis'. He entertained what Sainte-Beuve
called a 'liaison de raison' with the parti and in this function transmitted important
financial aid collected by Port-Royal to the frondeurs.This is corroborated by the
depeche de Valen?ay:'ledit Cardinal de Retz avoit este assiste de plus de sept cens mil
livres par des personnes enfarinees de jansenisme . . . '. That a spirit of rebellion
was germane to both Jansenists and Frondeurs is hardly disputable. Conti, belonging
first to the one and then to the other, was to play an important, if disastrous, part
1 Memoires,I, 294 (the year I649). See also R. Mousnier, 'Quelques raisons de la Fronde',
XVIIe Siecle, Nos 2-3 (I949), 74-5.
 E. T. DUBOIS 77I
in the Compagnie duSaint-Sacrement. He had been won over to the nouveautes through
the influence of the dissenting Bishop of Aleth and joined the Compagniefirst in
Languedoc and then in Paris, in I66o. Both Rapin and the Annalesrecognize
Conti's membership as one of the reasons for the final dissolution of the Compagnie,
although for a time his protection, as nephew by marriage to Mazarin, was useful:
'l'entree de M. le Prince de Conty dans la Compagnie a ete le sujet de sa destruc-
tion. . . '. The great merit of the Compagnie,according to Rapin, lay in the
co-operation of various classes of society, 'personnes de la cour, de la robe et des
autres etats', for one purpose 'l'interet ... de Dieu et du prochain'.
Rapin was more concerned with the closeness of the human and the spiritual
aspects of Jansenism than with its theological intricacies. Among the wealth of
personal, sometimes anecdotal, stories is one that sheds light on the genese of
De la FriquenteCommunion. Rapin had it from one of the interested parties, Mme de
Sable herself. Living at the chateau de Sable she chose a spiritual director from the
neighbouring La Fleche, P. de Sesmaisons. Her friend, the princesse de Guemene,
under the spiritual direction of Port-Royal, criticized 'les communions de la
marquise trop frequentes pour une personne du monde'. The marquise consulted
her confessor who explained in a short treatise the traditional teaching of the
church on receiving communion. Mme de Guemene who was presented with a
copy wasted no time in handing it over to Arnauld 'qui se preparoit depuis long-
temps sur cette matiere, arrangea ce qu'il avoit de prepare' and thus produced
De la FrequenteCommunion. In the preface Arnauld indicates:
I1 y a quelque temps qu'une personne de grande condition, . . . d'une piete solide et vraiment
chrdtienne, recut un 6crit qu'on lui fit tomber entre les mains, par lequel on tachait de la
detourner de la voie oiuDieu l'avait mise ... un stratageme du diable . . .
It is precisely this personal information, these anecdotal reminiscences, which
present the social historian of the seventeenth century with a fund of material. In
addition to the numerous drawing-room stories Rapin portrays many of the leading
figures of the movement. If the portrait of Saint-Cyran showed prejudice and
antagonism Pascal's is remarkably fair: 'C'etoit un homme extraordinaire, d'un
esprit vaste et d'une penetration profonde, mais d'un genie le plus agreable pour les
mathematiques qu'on ait vu en ce siecle' (Memoires, I, 214). Beside his intellectual
qualities Rapin also saw Pascal's personal integrity when at the time of the
controversy over defait et de droit he was one of the first
a trouver a redire a un expedient si peu honnete. C'etoit un homme d'un sens droit, nulle-
ment accoutume a ces biais honteux dont la necessite oblige quelquefois les gens de cabale a
se servir ... le genie admirable qu'il avoit... luy avoit imprime dans l'esprit un caractere
de solidite et de droiture qui luy faisoit chercher la v6rite en toutes choses... (Memoires,
II, 249)

Was Pascal prompted to act as he did by changed circumstances, as H. Gouhier

suggests1 or did he seek 'la grace de la persecution' in the sense of his sister
Jacqueline ? Rapin had first hand knowledge of this dissension through the account
written by Soeur Flavie even if he could not unravel the reasons.
With regard to the Lettres Provinciales, where Rapin could hardly feel detached,
he shows more perspicacity and judgement than many of his confreres.He evokes

1 'Pascal et la signature du formulaire', Studifrancesi, 9 (I960); see also the review in XVIIe
Siecle, 57 (1962), 91-2.
772 A JesuitHistoryof Jansenism
the pre-publication publicity the sixth letter was given at the Hotel de Nevers
where 'les beaux esprits . . . par complaisance a la comtesse de Plessis, s'etoient
eriges en precurseursde lettres de Pascal ... pour preparer les esprits a la [of 25
April] bien recevoir . . . ' but he assesses the reason for their success shrewdly and
accurately:
La dispositionoiuse trouverentaussyla plupartdes espritsdans Pariset dansle royaume,
qui n'avoientrien comprisdansle fondde la questionqui venoitd'etreddcideea Rome,luy
fut favorable;on s'y trouvasi fatiguede la secheressede ces matieresles plus obscuresde
l'ecolequ'onfut bien aysede voirplaisantersurun sujetsi grave,et les libertinsapplaudirent
fort a ce genre d'ecrirequi rendoitridiculece que la religiona de plus grave et de plus
serieux... (Memoires, II, 363)

Perhaps it was in an attempt to rehabilitate Pascal in his own eyes that Rapin
raised the problem of Pascal's retraction at the end of his life. Beurrier's account
was written two and a half years after Pascal's death and is perhaps somewhat
invalidated by his subsequent letter to Mme Perier. Rapin had first-handknowledge
of the document, then in the Archbishop's possession. The difference of opinion
inside the parti over the formulaireis confirmed by the accounts of Hermant and
Racine. If Rapin assessed the impact of the Provincialesso accurately he was no
less perspicacious in judging the inept efforts of his confreres(Annat, Nouet, Pirot
and others) in replying to them: 'les peres, tout habiles qu'ils etoient, donnerent
grossierement dans le piege qu'on leur avoit dress ... '. Beside Pascal's 'raillerie
si delicate et d'une vivacite si fine' the Jesuit tracts fell flat. Pascal's was not the
only literary talent in the service of the Jansenist cause; Isaac Le Maistre too
servitsi admirablement le partipar le talentmerveilleuxqu'il avaitd'ecrire... il n'y avoit
aucun qui approchatde la beaute et de la perfectionou il avoit portela puretdde notre
langue, et rien ne donna tant de reputationa l'opinion nouvelle que cette purete...
(Histoire p. 356)
dujansenisme,
In the last pages of the Memoires,after the Peace of Clement IX, Rapin expressed
the hope that the turn of the tide for the Society had perhaps come: 'le P.
Boudaloue, qui commenca cette ann6e [I669] a precher a Paris, le fit avec un
succes si grand que depuis longtemps on n'avoit rien vu de pareil a la vogue qu'il
eut ... '. And then he relates an incident he had witnessed himself:
Et ce fut a cetteoccasiondespetitssuccesde la societequeBoileau-Desprdaux, le bel espritdu
temps,dit dansle cabinetdu premierpresidentde Lamoignonce joli mot qui plut si fort a
ce magistratde bon goutt:Que lesJ6suitesavoientddfaitlesjansdnistesen bataillerangde,
le P. Bourdalouepar la predication,le P. Bouhourspar la plume.(Mimoires, III,506)
Indeed Bourdaloue's success had begun that year when he preached during advent
in the church of St Paul and was established at court the following year. He won
over not only Mme de Sevigne 'qui allait en Bourdaloue' but also the 'Meres de
l'Eglise', such loyal supporters of Port-Royal as Mme de Conti and Mme de
Longueville. Bouhours, tutor to the young princes de Longueville at the college
de Clermont, had gained a reputation as an honnetehommeand lettrebefore he pub-
lished his critical and linguistic studies and was later (1676) consulted by Racine
'de prendre la peine de les [the first four acts of Phedre]lire et de marquer les fautes
contre la langue dont vous etes un de nos meilleurs maltres . . . '. This judgement
of controversial questions based on the literary merit of the writing seems not to be
an isolated one, as Raymond Picard points out with regard to the Racine-Nicole
controversy: 'Ce qui frappe, dans cette polemique telle qu'il l'a menee, c'est son
 E. T. DUBOIS 773

aspect tres litteraire. On a souvent le sentiment qu'il est plus tente de reprocher a
Nicole ... d'ecrire mal que de penser faux.'l That style even in non-literary
writing should carry so much weight in a century of such sensitive taste is of course
not surprising. This argument of the 'literary revenge' taken by the Jesuits so as
to regain some of the standing they had lost at the time of the Provincialeshas its
own limited value. They also suffered from a reputation of 'devotion aisee' they
owed to the unfortunate title of Le Moine's book. He, together with Escobar or
Binet, have overshadowed such distinguished spiritual writers as Louis Lallemant
or Claude de la Colombiere.2 That in a long and embittered controversy rights
and wrongs belong to both sides is a matter of course. The Jesuit-Jansenist issue
may have seemed a mere 'raillerie' at the time of the Provinciales,but seen in the
perspective of the intellectual and spiritual development of the seventeenth century,
it involves two fundamentally important attitudes. If one sidesteps for a moment
the intricacies of the relationship between free will and divine grace, leaving it
to the competent theological authority, one finds on the one hand the historical
perspective used in such writings as the Augustinuswith its accumulation of
quotations from Scripture and the early Fathers and on the other the speculative
theology practised by the Jesuits on a rational basis, as Molina had done. In the
matter of pastoral activity the Jesuits wanted to adapt themselves to their times;
Abercrombie (p. 93) calls them 'the left wing of the intellectual Counter Refor-
mation'. Pascal frequently referred to the 'autorites toutes modernes' in the
Provinciales.Renaissance and Humanism lay between them and the Middle Ages
and they attempted to reintegrate this newly found consciousness of man's
independence into a Christian perspective. In the course of it the Jesuits found
themselves using such often doubtful means as casuistry and compromise and
unduly involved in the 'world'. The spirituality represented by Saint-Cyran and
the so-called Jansenists, authentic and admirable in its way, was directed towards
a return to the primitive church, a complete rejection of the 'world', a stress on the
essentially fallen human nature. Saint-Cyran's own pastoral activity was
concerned with a few 'ames d'elite': 'I1 renonqait a agir sur la masse des fideles
dont l'exercice du ministere ne lui avait d'ailleurs jamais permis de connaitre les
besoins.' The really crucial problem that brought two factions of the Church face
to face with one another (neither Jansenists nor Jesuits stood by themselves) was
that of tradition and renewal, or, as H. Gouhier put it, ' "le modernisme" de la
Compagnie et le primitivisme de Port-Royal'.3 E. T. DUBOIS
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

1 Racinepolemiste(I967).
2 See M. de Certeau, 'Crise sociale et reformisme spirituel au debut du XVIIe siecle', in Le
MAprisdu Monde (I965); G. Guitton, Le Bienheureux Claudede la Colombiere(Lyon, I943).
3 'La Tragedie des Provinciales', StudiFrancesi(1961).